East of Eden (1955)

East of Eden (1955)

[10] James Dean received the first posthumous acting nomination from the Academy Awards for his riveting performance as the troubled Cal in East of Eden, his first major film role. (He died in a car accident just a few months after the…
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

[10] James Dean gives one of the most iconic performances in movie history as Jim Stark, an angst-ridden teenager who quarrels with his parents almost as much as he tangles with high school bullies. I normally hate tough guy movies, and I'd…
Touch of Evil (1958)

Touch of Evil (1958)

[8] Writer/director Orson Welles also co-stars in his adaptation of Whit Masterson's novel Badge of Evil, a sinister late-era film noir thriller set at the U.S.-Mexican border. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican narcotics officer who spars with Welles's corrupt American police captain…
Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Revenge of the Creature (1955)

[6] The first sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon finds the Gill Man captured and put on display in a Florida theme park. There he's studied by a couple of smitten scientists (John Agar and Lori Nelson) who want to…
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

[7] Scientists discover a prehistoric 'man-fish' in the Amazonian jungle and attempt to capture him for study. But we all know how that goes, right? When the creature takes a fancy to the lone woman in the expedition crew (Julia Adams), he…
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

[4] Peter Cushing returns for Hammer's first sequel to their highly successful The Curse of Frankenstein. The sequel opens with Cushing's mad baron escaping the guillotine and setting up camp in a new town where he transplants the brain of his deformed…
Born Yesterday (1950)

Born Yesterday (1950)

[7] Judy Holliday picked up the Best Actress Oscar playing a rough-around-the-edges ex-showgirl in Born Yesterday. Broderick Crawford co-stars as her surly boyfriend, a garbage tycoon schmoozing for favor in Congress. He hires a reluctant journalist (William Holden) to help Holliday fit…
The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)

The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)

[6] Hollywood's quintessential skank, Jane Russell (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), stars as a San Francisco prostitute fleeing to Honolulu during the dawn of World War II to make a new life of fortune. On the ship to the islands, she falls in love…
Dial M for Murder (1954)

Dial M for Murder (1954)

[6] Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend) hires a man to murder Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. The film, based on a stage play by Frederick Knott, opens with Milland hiring an old college acquaintance (Anthony Dawson) to murder…
Shane (1953)

Shane (1953)

[8] George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Gunga Din) directs this Western morality tale based on the novel by Jack Schaefer. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a drifting cowboy who wanders into a sprawling Wyoming valley in the late 1800s…